Five countries including Nigeria, Zambia Gabon, Kenya and
Egypt, have been selected as sub-regional disease control centres by the Africa
Union (AU), reports NaijaAgroNet.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the Director, Social
Affairs, African Union Commission (AUC), Mr. Olawale Maiyegun, as saying at the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, weekend, that these designated centres
represent a cluster of regional collaborating centres for AU on disease related
control efforts.
He explained that these countries have a coordinating office
within the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia based on laid down criteria
which was approved last year, 2015 under the Article 26 of the Africa Centre
for Disease Control (ACDC) statutes.
“We are in Nigeria and our aim is to determine if the
National Centres for Disease Control, which serves as centre for disease
control in West Africa, meets the criteria that are contained in the statutes.
We are not comparing the countries with each other rather we are evaluating and
assessing them to ensure they meet every criteria.”
He stressed AU expectation on its mandate through government
commitment, human resources, infrastructure and funding.
Maiyegun further commended efforts of the current Nigerian
government toward the CDC concept fulfillment.
Isaac Oyimah with
agency report/GEE
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